How to Fall
by ShhSleepy
Summary: Hiccup has fallen a million times in his life. It's never stopped him before. He's always had someone there to catch him at the ground. But for once- it seems his luck has run out. People were not made to fly. They were made to fall. And Hiccup is going all the way.


**It's been a while since I put up "Vikings Never Learn to Fly" and I did promise a one shot! So if you've read my other piece or even if not- I hope you enjoy this! **

**I'm not big on long intro's so just... READ REVIEW AND ENJOY!**

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When I was a kid I fell off the roof of the Great Hall. I remember it as clear as day right up until I hit the ground. The way my heart stuttered from my chest all the way down into my gut. The breath shaken right from my throat in a moment of shocked silence. That was just the first step. The slip of my foot on the tiles underneath and then nothing but the air to hold me up.

If the air could have held me up…

It was funny. It was a short fall to the ground but it had felt an eternity. My body like a rock plummeting towards the earth. I counted the seconds by the beats of my heart. Fear taking hold of every bone as I recalculated my mistake in my head, wondering how I had fallen. Wondering what Stoik would think when he found me on the ground, flattened by my own stupidity. But that was what I was. A miscalculation. A hiccup. And like any other hiccup, I was easily broken. But right then- the error I had made barely registered in my head. It was just air. My hands reaching out desperately to grasp handfuls of it, allowing it to slip through my fingers like water. It didn't matter what Stoik would think when he found me. He would not find me quick enough to catch me.

When I finally hit the ground, I knew for sure I was dead.

When I finally came to- I wished I had been right. The face of my father leaned over me, worry and rage making an emotional cocktail all over his brow. I hadn't the will or energy to respond to it. Only pain, excruciating pain from my tailbone all the way up to the base of my neck. But I could move. I could breathe if only just. I was used to falling down. I was used to hitting the ground. I was used to the air getting knocked clear out of my lungs. I had survived such falls time and time again starting with the petty twenty foot fall from the Great Hall and ending with the earth shattering fall off of Toothless as we faced our finale against the Red Death. I had been so lucky both times.

But it seemed I was about spent on luck.

_"Hiccup, you can't go up there. It's too dangerous." Stoik's hand on his arm was tight and unyielding. He was not going to let go. The glaze in his eyes was obvious as much as he tried to mask it with determined authority. Hiccup saw right through the façade, frowning at his dad with just as much solemnity as his elder._

_"Dad, they're on dragons. If anyone stands a chance against this attack, it's me." Hiccup's eyes were dark, face like stone. He was no longer little Hiccup. He was a Viking. A dragon trainer. And if Berk was under attack, it was his duty not only as a resident but as the leader of the academy to defend his home. "Dad… it'll be okay." He eased his arm out of his father's grip, the larger Viking staring at him with terror, as if his son had already been lost._

_Stoik always knew when something was wrong._

I had come a long way since I had started on Toothless. And I was not referring to how many yards I had plummeted from the sky. It had been a long way since the beginning of my life. And again, I was not referencing from the day I had been born. The beginning of my life- as I saw it, began the day I had found Toothless trapped in the bottom of the pit. It had been the day I had begun to live and the day I had found my best friend.

That was exactly what he was. My best friend. He was there for me every day when I woke up. He was there for me when I was down on myself. And he was there next to me when I fell. Just as he was now. Only now- I wished he was not.

If both of us fall, who will catch us?

_Hiccup hadn't even seen the Deadly Nadder in the rain. It pelted his skin, cold and damp in his eyes and heavy on his clothing. He was used to it. He had grown up on rainy days and thunderstorms. But the clouds were thick and dark. The wind biting his skin and tilting the droplets like rocks against his body. And the others were not doing well either. _

_Far below him, the sounds of the battle raged. Between the flaps of Toothless' wings, he could see his friends locked in battle. He could see Stoik locked hammer to hammer with a man matching his size. He watched as Astrid allowed a battle cry to leave her lips, a line of blood streaking her pale cheek. The twins circled an enemy, searching for an opening for at least one of the two heads they controlled. But what opening was there at all, if any? They were no match. It was the one thing that Hiccup could make out easily enough in the storm. They were going to lose._

_He didn't even see the spike. He didn't see it until it had punched deep into Toothless' wing._

What had Gobber said? I had to strain my memory to hear the words. They were words no one dared speak around Berk anymore. A down dragon is a dead dragon. Those had been the words. They rang true as ever. But they came from darker times. Back when dragons were the enemies and things were hard. No longer was it simple. No longer were the reptiles the monsters but the riders that sat behind their fangs and fire. It was a shame the darker times had been fighting beasts and the happier times consisted of fighting each other. And over what? I hardly understood what this attack was about. I hardly understood what would come of killing off the warriors on our island. Only blood. That was all I had seen.

Seen. I had seen blood. But not anymore. Right then, I could see nothing but black clouds overhead. Nothing but the black body of Toothless struggling in the air next to me. Nothing but black images. Black. It had been the same thing I had seen after hitting the ground falling off the Great Hall. The same thing I had seen after fighting the Red Death. Black. But this time- I was seeing it before I had even hit the ground.

It was funny. The air tasted the same falling now as it had before. Just as bitter. Just as filled with fear. And just as before, I could hardly hope to reach out and grasp it in frantic fingers.

_"Hiccup!"_

_He didn't know whose voice it was that screamed his name as he was knocked off of his dragon's back. His prosthetic yanked from the stirrup by the force of the blow and his fingers sliding free from the slick saddle. One hit. It had taken one hit to send them off course and into the open sky._

_The world rushed around him, a mess of images and pictures smearing across his vision and blinding him momentarily. He was falling and he could not for the life of him reach his dragon. It didn't matter if he could. Toothless was spent, his wing in tatters flapped uselessly at his side, taken and rattled by the gush of air that rushed to meet their plummet. Struggling. He was struggling. And then- he was not. Those wide green eyes of his dragon met his, locking together as unspoken messages passed between them._

_They were going to fall all the way this time._

I was not afraid. That was something that actually scared me quite a bit was the lack of feelings. At least the other times, I had felt something be it the beat of my heart as it sputtered behind my ribs or the terror I had felt meeting the tail of the Red Death head on. I had felt something. Fear, agony, guilt, shame… Now? I felt nothing.

I was just a hollow shell, as if a part of me already knew this was the way I was going to die. It was a bitter truth. Who would have guessed that when I got out of bed this morning, it would be the very last time I saw the sun? The last time I spoke to my father. The last time I rode Toothless. My body surrendered to reality and left me numb. Maybe that was just a defense mechanism I didn't know I had. It was for my own good that I hit the ground silent as the rainfall.

_Hiccup's body hit the ground with a sickening crunch. He could taste the blood on his lips, washed with the rain to quench his thirst. Conscious. He was conscious, vision swimming back and forth as if he had landed in water and not in the tall grass of a field. Conscious in mind, but his body had left him. Next to him, he could see Toothless curled on his side, both wings bent in odd angles and his head laying softly in the mud. Those green eyes squinted softly at his friend, a deep moan echoing from the beasts belly to fill the air between them. Overhead, the sounds of the battle raged, but there was nothing for Hiccup's ears. He was alone. Alone with his dragon._

_He tried to reach, a single finger twitched in response and then his thumb. But nothing followed. It felt as if every bone in his body had been broken. Shattered just as he had believed he had the day he had fallen off the Great Hall. He had been shattered like a pane of glass._

_"Tooth…less…" He felt the word leave his lips in a breath of air more than an actual sound. It was lost in the wind. Lost in the rain. But the dragon heard it none the less. Perhaps he felt it. Whatever the case, the black beast dragged its body through the grass, resting only when his slick scales brushed his rider's hand._

_Hiccup could feel the cool touch of his friend against his knuckles. His chest heaving with every forced breath. "This is it…"_

I could recall the first time I had lived. It wasn't like most people. The first day I had been born had been on the back of Toothless, my friend. I had fallen so many times. It was nice to finally have someone there to catch me. But it had only ever been a matter of time before I ran out of luck. Before _we_ ran out of luck. It seemed that this was it. It felt final enough laying there and letting the rain wash the blood from my body. Grass stained green to pink beneath me. But in the darkness of the night- it was all black and shades of grey. Colors and lights were vacant from my eyes.

When I was little, I had fallen off the Great Hall. I remembered that day clear enough in my head. Only that time, I had gotten up after and walked once again on solid ground. This time was different. The air had been the same on the way down. The same pull of gravity on my body, a stone plummet to the earth below. But I did not stand up and walk away from this.

I breathed once, twice, and then there was no air left to breath.

I had fallen so many times before. Only this time I did not stand up. My eyes locked with Toothless' and we flew away together for the very last time.

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**HEY! Hope you enjoyed it! If you liked it, if you hated it, if you are completely unphased, leave a review! I'd love to hear what you think! Also, check out my other HTTYD fan fic "Vikings Never Learn To Fly". It's a bit longer but if you like the Hiccup bashing it's where the party's at. haha **

**Merry Christmas Everyone and a Happy New Year!**


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